2021

Broadsword – Reinvention. Our Pivot to Virtual

When the pandemic first hit, it rather felt that our Event house had been decimated. At the start of 2020, Broadsword was a thriving, growing agency, with plans to launch in Hong Kong, take on a new premises and continue to expand our brilliant team of people. We’d spent years cultivating something special, a place we felt secure and at home. It’s been a year of upheaval, disruption and change. But it has also been a time of innovation, creativity and reinvention. At Broadsword we’ve embarked on a new journey, crafted a new offering and acquired new skills, but stayed true to who we are. Creative. Responsible. Caring. Components of a collective with the clutch power to create something special.

In light of the seismic challenges the events industry has faced, Broadsword continues to produce events globally, having developed a digital event offering fit for the future that offers more sustainable, accessible and inclusive solutions for our clients. We have picked each other up, supported each other through the toughest times and are now a team where every individual is a confident leader, ready to inspire a future generation of event professionals. A true triumph over adversity.

Corinthian Sports – Project Resilience

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all sporting and music events were immediately cancelled or postponed, with no timeline for when spectators would be allowed to return. Our product offering as a Sports Hospitality provider was decimated. Corinthian Sports took decisive action, unlike our competitors, to continue to tackle the challenge proactively and head-on. One of the biggest outputs was to define our company values from our learning, all evident in our response to the pandemic. Why did we continue to operate and which value does this represent?

• RESILIENCE – To continually move forward, regardless of setbacks, uncertainty or delay
• TEAM – To support one another and share the challenge
• PASSION – To sustain the small wins, keep momentum and motivate our team
• TRUST – To give our customers confidence in our brand
• AGILE – To protect our business growth and seek new opportunities

Evenco International

Evenco International is an executive conference organizer devoted to the asset management community throughout Europe and the Americas. Throughout the crisis, Evenco doubled in size. The only events company to do so. Due to our bottom up approach, where we construct events based on demand, we identified opportunities and innovative ways to pivot.

EventsCase – Reinvention

EventsCase is the largest European based provider helping Event Organisers with a unique solution for all their events: in-person, virtual and hybrid. Before the pandemic, the business was all in-person events. We managed bigger and bigger clients and events such as the UN with COP-25 with over 25,000 high-level attendees in Madrid. As in-person events were cancelled, we experienced sales dropping 50% monthly from January to May. At that moment, the only option was Virtual, so we started developing a solution for that short-term need, but with the vision that in the medium and long-term, clients would manage a mix of all type of events (in-person, virtual and hybrid), what meant we had to have a long-term vision, building a platform valuable for all. Our main assumption was that virtual events would remain after the pandemic to some extent, and hybrid would be the new default format for global events. We started to see the results only a month after launching the virtual platform and sales were already recovered in June. In comparison with previous years, we now run much larger events. If the average event was for 500-1000 attendees in 2019, in 2020 was 5000-10000 attendees each.

GRC World Forums – PrivSec Global

PrivSec, a GRC World Forums initiative, is a leading source of news and content for the global data protection, privacy and security sector. The pandemic provided a unique opportunity to extend their reach to professionals within the data protection, privacy and security sector globally, plus provide their existing audience with richer content from speakers all over the world at a time which is most convenient for them.

Since migrating to a digital-first offering in 2020, they have run over 105 digital conferences and interactive webinars, welcoming over 70,000 industry professionals from 125+ countries. From conferences to webinars to publications, they provide opportunities for data protection, privacy and security professionals around the world to gain the latest insights, guidance and advice from industry experts and thought-leaders. This joined up approach delivers an immersive digital and engaged experience, and provides a unique route to market for organisations looking to target this growing and difficult to reach audience.

They now have an established global livestream experience series attracting up to 10,000 industry professionals. This has enabled them to reinvent their in-person event offering to focus on tailored, regionally curated events that have exceptional networking opportunities, as well as a bespoke programme of content.

ICC Belfast | Waterfront Hall | Ulster Hall – Pivoting in the Wake of a Pandemic

ICC Belfast | Waterfront Hall | Ulster Hall represent some of Belfast’s most iconic venues. In response to COVID-19, a program for business preparedness has been implemented to ensure the venues remained resilient in the face of adversity. The swift action taken focused on The People and Innovative Solutions to deliver impressive results. Employee engagement levels have increased by 16%, the venues’ technical infrastructure has expanded to become hybrid by-design and over 90% of all business and entertainment events were retained, not cancelled. Guided by the board and senior management, the team has been empowered to take bold decisions and innovation has been championed at every stage to ensure the long-term sustainability of the organisation so that when the time was right, ICC Belfast would be galvanized into kickstarting business again across Belfast and Northern Ireland. As final preparations are made in advance of reopening, visitor safety remains the top priority at the COVID-Secure venue that has achieved the ‘We’re Good to Go’ industry standard. A bright future lies ahead for this city that stands on the precipice of brilliance as the team at ICC Belfast | Waterfront Hall | Ulster Hall demonstrate their commitment to building back better.

INFLOW Network – INFLOW Awards ’20

How do you host a red carpet awards ceremony in the middle of COVID concerns? The previous INFLOW Awards had been physical events with red carpets; broadcasted by national networks. For the first time, INFLOW Network created a digital event for the safety of everyone. INFLOW Awards ’20 was designed to be watched online. We’ve collaborated with Onedio—one of Turkey’s biggest digital platforms. With the participating influencers urging their fans to watch the show, we’ve created an incredible hype that fully utilized the power of influencers. We’ve also created an online red carpet where influencers could create content and post their awards.

We’ve registered everyone with the government and let them in with their state-assigned HES codes. We only had a core production team, and none of the influencers got in contact with one another. Each influencer was allocated 20 minutes to get in and out of the studio, which rendered the process virtually “contactless”. Everyone besides the on-screen talents wore masks throughout the day. All this led to the biggest influencer marketing event in Turkey with an earned media value of $409.435,15; in a totally safe manner, and with a much smaller organizational burden.

we.CONECT

we.CONECT Global Leaders is a business information event company that has successfully transformed on-premise events into virtual events during the Covid crisis. To provide event attendees with comparable event experiences in virtual form, we.CONECT has developed an online event platform, hubs101. On hubs101, attendees have access to the world’s best video streaming technologies, an AI-powered matchmaking platform, and realt-time event analytics. Attending virtual events on hubs101 is an experience close to or even beyond the on-premise event one, where people can watch event sessions freely, make meaningful business contacts, and keep a track of their event ROI. To today, we’ve hosted over 500 events with nearly 40,000 clients on hubs101 and received positive feedback and rating in return.

BBC Education – Lockdown Learning

Lockdown Learning has been the BBC’s biggest Education offer in its history. It brought together some of the BBC’s biggest platforms and hundreds of educational resources on TV, online and social media to help pupils of all ages learn at home and was produced in record time. When the news was announced in early January 2021 that UK schools were switching to online learning, we had to move quickly to provide parents, students and teachers with educational content. Working with colleagues in BBC Two, CBBC, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online, we launched the Lockdown Learning content just five days later. From January 11th 2021, Lockdown Learning provided a three hour block of primary learning on CBBC and at least two hours of content for secondary students on BBC Two every week day during term time. This ensured that all children could access curriculum-based learning, even if they didn’t have access to the internet. Alongside this TV offer, there was a wealth of online content which parents, teachers and children could access when and where they needed it.

Channel 4

Despite the restrictions of lockdown and the constraints of reduced budgets, Channel 4’s creative and operational response to the crisis was swift and effective. Our priority was to ensure we played our part in supporting, informing and entertaining all the Nations and Regions of the UK, whilst delivering our remit and supporting the TV industry as a whole. By finding new and innovative ways to produce programmes, Channel 4 were able to continue commissioning during the pandemic, turning around 29 current affairs films and documentaries, launching the Stay at Home Academy to keep viewers occupied and high-spirited through lockdown, and navigating tricky production challenges to keep some of the nation’s best-loved brands on air, when our viewers needed them most. These actions simultaneously helped support the creative sector and help independent production companies survive during these difficult times, with prioritisation given to smaller indies, ethnically diverse led companies, or those based outside of London.
Given these challenges, Channel 4 was able to finish the year recording the first growth in its portfolio viewing share since 2011, record digital growth of 26%, as well a financial surplus to be invested back into its content in 2021 and 2022.

disguise – disguise xR

With the Covid-19 pandemic halting all live shows, disguise – the technology platform that has delivered spectacular live visual experiences for over 20 years – had to rethink its core business offering to empower its user community of creative professionals. Working with this community of users, disguise developed and delivered their extended reality (xR) solution five months ahead of schedule. xR refers to technology that blurs the line between the physical and virtual worlds.

Starting with its early, memorable application in Katy Perry’s performance of ‘Daisies’ in the 2020 American Idol finale, disguise xR has since been used to realise over 250 projects, including the Billie Eilish: Where Do We Go livestream, the 2020 MTV VMAs, Gucci’s 2021 Aria collection launch, commercial shoots for Nissan and Hyundai and even in Walmart’s and SAP’s corporate conferences. Meanwhile, 190+ stages powered by disguise xR have been built in 35+ countries in a worldwide deployment to meet the growing demand for the technology.

disguise is growing rapidly – recognised in the 22nd annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 as one of Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years.

EventsCase – 45th Edinburgh TV Festival

Established in 1976, the Edinburgh TV festival is one of the biggest and most anticipated dates in the UK TV industry calendar. Known for its learning opportunities, cutting-edge content and keynote address (the Mactaggart Lecture), the event is a respected source of insight, with past speakers including Sir David Attenborough, Louis Theroux, Hugh Grant and Ricky Gervais.

In 2020, after COVID-19 forced changes to its usual in-person format, the organisers worked diligently with EventsCase to migrate its core features to a new digital experience. After months of research, the organisers named EventsCase as their solution of choice. Work began on the platform from mid-July, leaving just over a month before the official start date of August 24, 2020.

Some of the numbers seen at the 45th edition of the Edinburgh TV Festival include:
88% of sessions sponsored (20% more than previous year); Widest coverage of MacTaggart according to our records – including front page of The Guardian and big screen features at Kings Cross Station; Increase of 56% in overall attendees.

Hotwire and Zoom – Connecting People during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Zoom appointed Hotwire in 2020 with a brief to raise its profile in two European markets. With the onset of the global pandemic resulting in more people using Zoom than ever before to stay connected, Hotwire was asked to extend the programme to manage 19 countries worldwide. Hotwire coordinated an international plan to manage media interest in multiple markets, focusing on shifting sentiment and supporting growth. The team successfully steered sentiment in a positive direction whilst keeping the core message of Zoom as a reliable and innovative video first platform.

Scottish Ballet – The Secret Theatre

Scottish Ballet is, at its heart, a touring ballet company. They tour across Scotland at least three times a year, and regularly visit venues around the rest of the UK and internationally. When it became clear that, due to COVID-19, the company would have to postpone their 2020/21 winter tour, Scottish Ballet announced plans to debut their first-ever feature-length film – The Secret Theatre.

The film was ticketed (for free, with donations encouraged) via Scottish Ballet’s website and released for a short viewing period in the lead-up to Christmas, encouraging viewers to join ‘live’ – for a sense of shared experience.

The results were overwhelmingly positive. Around 25,000 households booked a free ticket, with a robust audience survey sample indicating a total viewing audience of over 55,000 people – pretty much the equivalent of Scottish Ballet regular winter tour of 50+ performances. A third of viewers were completely new to SB, and over 10,000 bookers signed up to the company’s free Membership programme.

18 Week Support – Re-establishing Diagnostic Endoscopy during Covid-19 for Patients with Suspected Cancer

The significant challenge presented by Covid-19, and the surge in demand for NHS resources, have required a transformation of the way care is delivered. After several weeks of working around the clock to increase capacity, optimise infection control procedures and develop new care pathways as infections rose, and clear and considered public health messaging, the system prevented itself from being overwhelmed. Thanks to these efforts, routine services are beginning to restart and a ‘new normal’ is being established. The NHS could not have mobilised such a rapid and effective response without the support of the private and not-for-profit sectors, so this award celebrates the partnerships behind the transformation seen in the infancy of the pandemic, and those enabling the reset, restoration or recovery of services now the peak has been passed.

Aspen Healthcare  

In March 2020, with the Covid crisis deepening, Aspen Healthcare along with the independent healthcare sector signed an historic agreement with the NHS, committing its full resources to the health service. Before this agreement was even signed, Aspen had transformed its operations into full Covid crisis mode, with a new command structure, home working for non-frontline staff & MS Teams for virtual meetings. In addition, Aspen rolled out new e-learning to replace classroom-based training, including a new Covid safety e-learning programme. Over the course of the next 12 months, Aspen provided essential support to some of the country’s largest NHS Trusts, striking up working arrangements and providing urgent care for patients. This included 63,000 NHS patient interactions including time-critical surgery, outpatient appointments and diagnostics, 39,000 outpatient appointments and the delivery of 75 life-saving ventilators sent to the NHS, as well as the continuation of cancer care & screenings for patients through new Covid-safe pathways. In addition, Aspen expanded its services, delivered a new health and wellbeing strategy and through its staff survey found huge support for its work in helping the NHS. A remarkable feat, Aspen’s healthcare heroes delivered high-quality patient care during a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic.

InHealth Group – Reorientating Services to Support Patients and the NHS

Very early on in the pandemic, InHealth decided to re-orientate our entire organisation to support NHS England in responding to the challenge of COVID-19. Since March 2020, InHealth has supported and delivered multiple projects and initiatives across England to assist the NHS in the response, ultimately supporting patients to continue receiving much needed healthcare services. As an independent healthcare provider with more than 25 years’ experience of working in partnership with the NHS, delivering services to more than 3 million NHS patients each year across a range of different areas, there was much that we could offer in terms of allocating available resources to fighting the pandemic. Building on an existing, positive relationship with the NHS and due to InHealth staff and services being located across the country in hospital sites, community settings and through our mobile fleet, we not only repurposed some of our clinical services, but also redeployed staff and made them available to work locally wherever needed. By providing additional training and creating flexibility within our own workforce, more than 1,000 members of staff were ready to be redeployed into the NHS.

Portman Dental Care

At the beginning of the pandemic, all our dental surgeries were shut with immediate effect. Portman dental put the patients, colleagues and clinicians front and centre in their response. Telephone and video triaging systems were set up, phone calls, letters and social media were used to communicate updates and information with our patients. Colleagues and clinicians were offered professional webinars (some also made available to the wider dental community) and continuous support from the Portman Team. Some of this, such as trained mental health first aiders, are innovations we will be taking on into the future with us.

Transform Hospital Group – Supporting the NHS at a Time of Crisis through Collaboration and Innovation

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Transform Hospital Group has completely overhauled its service offering and business model, transitioning from a business which was 100% funded by self-pay cosmetic and bariatric elective surgery and medical aesthetic treatments, to a well-rounded provider of general health and wellbeing services. Pivoting within just seven days as the UK’s first national lockdown was announced, THGL very quickly adapted its two hospitals in Manchester and Bromsgrove, to support the NHS in its time of crisis. Thanks to the incredible efforts of its workforce, significant investment in training, and a rapid response, THGL was able to forge relationships and partnerships with multiple NHS Trusts in order to treat patients in need. To date, over 2,500 NHS patients have been treated at THGL’s facilities, including cancer patients whose treatments would otherwise have been postponed indefinitely. The response has changed THGL’s long-term business strategy, and NHS collaboration is now set to make up a key part of the organisation’s future model. CEO Tony Veverka said: “New ways of working have been established, and there is no going back from this. Our ambition is to keep supporting the NHS and other private healthcare providers.”

Vita Health Group – Overcoming the Challenges arising from the Covid-19 Pandemic

Through a commitment to agile working, investment in innovation and additional workforce health and wellbeing initiatives, we have successfully overcome the challenges arising from the COVID pandemic. We quickly transitioned our mental and physical healthcare service-users to remote care delivery, and our workforce to remote working, supported through additional investment in IT provision. We adapted to remote working to successfully mobilise four primary care mental health services during national lockdown. We launched a range of innovations to support our service-users through the pandemic including a new orthopaedic pathway, online classes to support physical and mental wellbeing, virtual home workstation assessments, and a digital triage chatbot to enhance accessibility to primary care mental health services during a time of increased demand due to furlough, bereavement, job losses and social isolation. We also successfully piloted virtual reality technology as a therapy-aid to support treatment of service-users with anxiety-related needle-stick phobia, with eight service-users successfully receiving their COVID vaccine to date. Finally, we have enriched our staff health and wellbeing initiatives to support our workforce through the pandemic and beyond, including launching an electronic Wellbeing Hub, Staff Diversity Networks to drive change, remote social opportunities, and access to online classes and wellbeing modules.

Builders Merchants Federation

The construction industry supply chain, a significant part of the UK economy, faced mammoth challenges in the Covid-19 crisis. Nightingale Hospitals needed to be built, healthcare facilities updated and the vulnerable kept warm and secure. The UK relied heavily on the supply of building materials to support the national effort. The Builders’ Merchants Federation, represents a sizeable part of the UK economy, covering 760 members nationwide, with combined sales of £38 billion and employing 190,000 people. Despite the scope and scale of the sector, the BMF was able to act quickly and make a positive impact to support its members – and ultimately the wider economy – through exceptional leadership during the COVID-19 crisis. Its role was to inform members, ensure their voices were heard by Government – and to reflect the value of a membership organisation in difficult times. The BMF’s response also centred around demonstrating how the BMF and its members pulled together to support the national effort and the power of collaboration to find solutions to the complex issued faced. The activity was fast, responsive and creative – and has positively raised the profile of the building materials industry and merchants nationally and locally.

Chartered Institute of Public Relations – Member Covid-19 Support

The CIPR has delivered a fast-paced and well-rounded response to the challenges its members faced as a result of COVID. We have been of more help to them than ever before, and the support we brought to them quickly and freely has improved our engagement and driven higher recruitment and retention.

Energy Networks Association – Green Recovery Scheme: Supporting a Green Energy Economy

Energy Networks Association (ENA) members, the gas and electricity networks, have been working hard throughout the pandemic to keep Britain’s energy flowing and have continued their vital role in maintaining the critical national infrastructure that transmits and distributes electricity and gas. While the pandemic is ongoing, the networks have continued to innovate and work towards Net Zero and will now play a pivotal role in driving a green recovery. Six of Britain’s electricity network operators came together with Ofgem and agreed to invest tens of millions of pounds in each distribution network licence area, to unlock capacity to support Net Zero related projects. In total, we have agreed with Ofgem to invest just over £300m in electricity distribution network infrastructure across Great Britain. We received hundreds of responses to a call for evidence from organisations across GB. The final short-list of locations for investment were agreed with Ofgem in mid-May 2021, and the £300m of investment is now beginning to be rolled out, with the infrastructure planned to be completed in the next two years.

Federation of Small Businesses – FSB Covid-19 Webinar Series

The FSB exists to offer its members vital business services including advice, financial expertise, support and a powerful voice heard in government. And so when the coronavirus struck, threatening not just members’ ambitions, but their very futures, it needed to respond with agility, empathy and understanding of the most effective way to meet their needs. To achieve a greater reach across its membership base and the wider small business community, the FSB decided to utilise webinars as a vehicle to provide trustworthy information accumulated from reliable sources such as the government. The Covid-19 webinar campaign was not devised for financial gain nor exposure. It was simply to provide as much help and information as possible when it was needed the most. With calls to action to the FSB’s dedicated online coronavirus support hub, the webinars would also act as a vital channel to direct members to a constantly updated information resource they could trust to cut through the confusion of the daily rumours and speculation.

Law Society of Scotland – £2.2m Financial Aid Package

The Law Society of Scotland is the professional body for over 12,000 practising Scottish solicitors. In response to the impact of the pandemic on the legal sector, the Law Society of Scotland announced a package of financial support for the solicitor profession of over £2.2 million. Depending on a solicitor’s role and area of work, the new package delivered a saving of up to £380 in 2020. We also offered our CPD for free during the first lockdown saving hundreds more for many. Our action was designed to mitigate the risk of firm closures and widespread unemployment. The clearest measure of success is to look at those solicitors holding practising certificates year on year: We have seen an increase of 1.7% as of 27 April 2021 compared to the same day in 202, (12,391 practising certificate holders in 2021 compared with 12,185 practising certificate holders in 2020).

PPA – PPA’s Response to Covid-19

The PPA is the main membership association for the UK consumer and business magazine media industry. The achievements of this small team of nine during the pandemic, were nothing short of outstanding. Throughout the pandemic, the PPA provided additional support to its members and the wider industry through events, networking, meetings, lobbying work and the dedicated COVID-19 Advice Hub. The newly launched PPA Live! webinar series provided practical, informative and entertaining sessions, our public affairs team confirmed key worker status for those working in production/journalism to ensure our members could continue working during lockdown, and we facilitated additional business specific meetings and developed new working groups to tackle pressing issues such as Diversity & Inclusion and Sustainability, to make sure members had sufficient avenues to connect with each other. This extra activity was in addition to the regular PPA activity which continued alongside. The PPA maintained the COVID-19 Advice Hub and coronavirus news hub, giving members the most up-to-date and relevant information when they needed it most. Despite the many challenges, we have much to be proud of as an industry. By working together, sharing together, and celebrating together, the PPA continues to bring the whole industry together.

The Business Travel Association – Covid-19 Response

The Business Travel Association (BTA) is the representative association for the business travel community and travel management companies, with TMC members accounting for over ninety percent of all managed travel booked in the UK. The BTA’s industry partners are all influential industry suppliers including airlines, airports, accommodation companies, rail, car rental, technology, payment and ancillary product providers. Working with our members and industry partners, the BTA raises the profile of the vital role business travel plays in the broader economy. Throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, the BTA has worked tirelessly to hold the Government to account for their lack of clarity regarding safe international travel and more importantly, to deliver the appropriate financial support for their sector. The BTA’s goal during Covid-19 was to raise awareness of the importance of the business travel sector, and to help members, partners and the travel industry cope with redundancy and furlough. They were the first industry body to ask for travel corridors and successfully campaigned for furlough extension. The Business Travel Association’s overall response included a range of social and media campaigns alongside Government and public engagement to project members’ needs as the pandemic evolved.